5 elements to a different future
Christian Ray Flores here, heavy hearted and introspective. I learned on Friday that yet another friend died in the Ukraine war. I’ve lost several and on both sides of the conflict. I think the finality of it made me think extra hard about our life stories and how they shape the future.
if you missed it
My conversation with the statistician of happiness - Nic Marks.
Forget Revenue. Happiness is Your Most Important Metric
5 elements to a different future
Last Sunday I broke my own rule.
I usually plan. I outline. I architect the arc before I write a single word.
Last week I just wrote. Stream of consciousness. A life in snapshots — [link to last Sunday’s post].
Age five. A concentration camp fence in Chile.
Age seven. Stepping off a plane in Mozambique.
Age eleven. My first bombing.
Age fourteen. Leaving the only place I’d ever called home.
Age twenty-two. Jumping off a cliff into music with no safety net.
Age twenty-five. Millions of people knowing my name.
I didn’t frame it. Just let it land.
Then I sat with it.
Then I saw it. Underneath all that chaos — the countries, the languages, the bombings, the reinventions — 5 elements running through the whole thing like a current. Not planned. Not constructed. Forged.
So I looked. Every brand I’ve ever built or studied. Same pattern. Every time.
Your life looks nothing like mine. I can still guarantee the 5 elements are there.
Most people never find them. They keep their story in one drawer and their brand in another — and wonder why it doesn’t move people. That’s not a strategy problem. It’s a congruency problem.
This Sunday for paid subscribers — the 5 elements. What they are, where they live in my story, and how to excavate them in yours.
Element one is what most people mistake for damage.
Element five is what taught me the actual power of a personal brand.
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